I don’t think the devil needs your help. This is a very real and pernicious belief behind the assertion that we should continue to leave large fractions of our student population behind when it comes to math. We say it’s too hard for them. It’s too hard to teach them. They don’t really need it. Excuses, excuses.

It’s a colossal failure of imagination, as far as I’m concerned. I think developing mathematical thinking is an absolutely nonnegotiable part of a complete public education. If kids are coming out of school with no clue of how to do it, we have got to mend that breach, not leave it.

BTW I think it’s utterly irrelevant whether someone “gets” PEMDAS or not. That’s not math. To the contrary, it belies a rote, formulaic way of thinking that is almost inimical to math.